MATLAB Function Reference

strcmp

Compare strings

Syntax

• k = strcmp('str1','str2')
  TF = strcmp(S,T)
  

Description

k = strcmp('str1','str2') compares the strings str1 and str2 and returns logical true (1) if the two are identical, and logical false (0) otherwise.

TF = strcmp(S,T) where either S or T is a cell array of strings, returns an array TF the same size as S and T containing 1 for those elements of S and T that match, and 0 otherwise. S and T must be the same size (or one can be a scalar cell). Either one can also be a character array with the right number of rows.

Remarks

Note that the value returned by strcmp is not the same as the C language convention. In addition, the strcmp function is case sensitive; any leading and trailing blanks in either of the strings are explicitly included in the comparison.

strcmp is intended for comparison of character data. When used to compare numeric data, strcmp returns 0.

Examples

• strcmp('Yes','No') =
     0
  strcmp('Yes','Yes') =
     1
  A = 
       'MATLAB'              'SIMULINK'     
      'Toolboxes'           'The MathWorks'
  B = 
      'Handle Graphics'    'Real Time Workshop'
      'Toolboxes'          'The MathWorks'     
  C = 
      'Signal Processing'    'Image Processing'
      'MATLAB'               'SIMULINK'        
  strcmp(A,B)
  ans =
       0     0
       1     1
  strcmp(A,C)
  ans =
       0     0
       0     0
  

See Also

strcmpi, strncmp, strncmpi, strmatch, strfind, findstr, regexp, regexpi, regexprep

strcat

strcmpi